One Afghan politician believes that, while Gen. David Petraeus will almost certainly pursue a counterinsurgency strategy similar to his predecessor's, he will be less inclined to "coddle" Karzai on corruption than McChrystal was.

The CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, has said that he now has to "coddle" his employees, and even the U.S. military has encouraged its drillmasters to do less shouting because, according to Under Secretary of Defense David Chu, today's generation of recruits respond better to instructors who play "a more counseling-type role."